


we don't need moons or stars

by potato_writes



Series: i'm standing right here on (jaime's) side [9]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Quasi-Ocean's Eleven AU, angst but only in brienne's mind, i suppose this is a morning after?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:08:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29164722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potato_writes/pseuds/potato_writes
Summary: Brienne startles when she wakes, shooting bolt upright and swinging her legs over the side of the bed before she remembers where she is, who the warm body slumbering at her side is. It takes a long moment for her pounding heartbeat to settle, and she’s still sitting on the edge of the bed when Jaime finally stirs, one hand stretching in her direction before he rolls over. A frown lingers on his face until he sees her sitting there, and his resulting smile is brilliant enough she’s forced to look away, staring at her jacket thrown over the back of a chair instead of glancing over at him.*one morning before the gala, jaime and brienne wake up together
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: i'm standing right here on (jaime's) side [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956802
Comments: 14
Kudos: 49





	we don't need moons or stars

**Author's Note:**

> i really didn't plan for this to take a month again, but then january happened, and, well...
> 
> but we're back! this one's a bit shorter than normal, mainly because i got tired of having it half-finished and decided i wanted to end it before some other major world disaster happened to derail my plans once again and send me spiralling into despair. but it's here, and i actually really like it, and i think that's more important.
> 
> title from ghost quartet, as always. also if you want you can come find me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/potatothecat), where i will be spending the next year yelling very loudly about the come from away proshot.
> 
> thank you for reading, and enjoy!

Brienne startles when she wakes, shooting bolt upright and swinging her legs over the side of the bed before she remembers where she is, who the warm body slumbering at her side is. It takes a long moment for her pounding heartbeat to settle, and she’s still sitting on the edge of the bed when Jaime finally stirs, one hand stretching in her direction before he rolls over. A frown lingers on his face until he sees her sitting there, and his resulting smile is brilliant enough she’s forced to look away, staring at her jacket thrown over the back of a chair instead of glancing over at him.

“Good morning,” he murmurs, his voice a low rumble rough from sleep, and she shivers, unable to help herself. It’s hard to keep looking away when he’s so _glorious_ like this, stretched out long and languid beneath pristine white sheets, the morning sun peeking through the curtains to paint him with streaks of gold light. “You have anywhere to go, or…”

She _should_ leave. She’d told the Jeynes to expect her back hours ago—or last night, she supposes, since a new day has dawned in between. They have a million little tasks to arrange, and everything has to be perfect if they’re going to pull this off. She can’t afford to spend leisurely mornings with the son of the man they’re trying to take down, letting him rub slow circles against her thigh while he watches her with poorly-hidden worry in his eyes.

“No, I can stay,” she says instead, and he smiles again, the fondness in the expression enough to make her heart ache, because there’s no way whatever it is between them will last. She won’t be able to stay forever. Her teammates need her, her island needs her, and the whole point of coming here was to extract information from him if possible, something she definitely did _not_ achieve last night. They’ll never be able to make this last, not with all the odds set against them.

But she can afford herself this one morning, this one chance to be selfish, and so she lets him tug her back down, his hand rising to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear before it settles on her cheek. What harm can come from a single indulgence, from letting herself get drunk on the attentions of a beautiful man who’d come back to the same bar every day for a week in hopes of seeing her again? 

“I feel like I should know more about you,” Jaime says after they’ve been lying there for a while. “I don’t know if you have any family, what you do for a living, nothing.”

“There’s not much to tell,” she demures, her eyes flickering down to where the sheets are slung low over his hips, wondering if offering to repeat last night will be enough to turn him off the subject. The answers are too complicated— _I have some family, but too many of them are dead now; I don’t have a formal job but currently I’m working to pull off a heist against your family_ —and she’d rather not disturb the fragile peace they’ve made for themselves, here in Jaime’s apartment with the sun shining in and the whole day ahead of them.

“There must be _something_ ,” he insists, a line emerging between his brows. “You might not feel the same way, but I don’t want this to be a quick fling, Brienne. I think there’s something more here. I don’t know...I don’t know if I’ve _ever_ felt about someone the same way I feel about you.”

It’s a heavy declaration after only a few weeks of meetings at that first bar that she’s pretending are chance, after they’ve spent a single night together and she’s already started wondering when the bubble’s going to burst. She’s not usually the sort to rush into things—the heist had been brewing in the back of her mind for the entire two years Margaery was in prison, after all—and she doesn’t want this to be the exception, no matter how tempting the thought may be.

Jaime could be the one to destroy her, though. He already knows her real name, and if he learns much more about her she’ll be an easy target should he connect the mysterious woman from the bar to the attack against his family once it happens. And if she’s exposed like that, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of her team gets discovered as well, and then all their hard work will have been for naught, defeated by the wiles of a Lannister once again.

“There really isn’t anything special about me,” she says quietly, right before he moves to pull his hand back. “I’m from the island of Tarth, just off the coast, I came to King’s Landing for school and never felt the urge to go back, I’m currently drifting between jobs while I try to figure out if I want to make a career change.” None of it’s a lie, even if it’s not the full truth either, but he lets the matter lie, and she’s not about to push it now that he’s moved on.

“Do you know what you wanna do?” he asks, shifting a little closer to her until their legs are bumping together under the blankets. “Or is it one of those ‘journeys of self-discovery’ my brother claims to go on every once in a while that he just uses as an excuse to party and offend our father?”

“Not really, but I’m hoping to find something that isn’t too intense,” she admits, grinning a little sheepishly. “My last job was so chaotic, so it’d be nice to do something calmer, more laid-back after that.”

There’s no need to tell him her ‘last job’ is technically still ongoing, or that it involves organizing ten other women in order to reveal his family’s crimes to the world. The rest of her words hold true, though—it’s been incredibly difficult keeping everything and everyone on track, even more so now that she’s lost a night to Jaime and his warm eyes and firm embrace.

He chuckles, the sound vibrating through her and making her heart swell. “That sounds lovely, actually. I’d give anything to not have to work at my family’s company any more, but unfortunately my father doesn’t seem too willing to let me walk away just yet.”

 _That_ is a startling revelation, though she does her best to keep her expression as neutral as possible. Despite the hesitancy from several of her teammates, she’d been operating on the assumption that Jaime’s as much a part of his father’s mess as his siblings are. If that’s incorrect, it changes a lot of things, even if the end of this thing they’re sharing will be the same no matter what.

Maybe her foolish promise to Joy won’t turn out to be so impossible to grant after all.

“Why not?” she asks slowly, determined to not seem too interested in the topic. “Shouldn’t he want you to forge your own path in life, away from his influence?”

“He’d prefer to have full control over me until the day he dies,” Jaime mutters, bitterness creeping into his tone and sullying the perfection of the moment. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he had plans in place to ensure none of us stray from the paths he set us on even when he’s long dead. If he lets me walk away, he can’t control my actions, what I say, who I make friends with. Never mind the fact that he’s rarely succeeded in totally controlling any of us at any point in time.”

That, at least, is in line with what she knows of Tywin Lannister, which means Jaime must be telling the truth when he says he’d like to be estranged from the rest of his family. He wouldn’t have any reason to lie to her unless he knew what she was _really_ doing here, anyways, and he’s been too genuine with her for everything to have been an act. 

She’s not sure why that realization hurts so much more than the thought of him lying.

“Your father doesn’t sound like a very pleasant man,” she murmurs, reaching out to run a hand through his hair. He purrs and nuzzles into the motion, the irritation that crossed his face when discussing his father fading in an instant. 

“He’s not, and I wish I could find some escape so I could avoid ever having to deal with him again. But I haven’t figured that out yet, so I’m stuck there until I do.” He shuffles closer to her again, their legs tangling together as the sheets slide further down his hips. “But I don’t want to ruin this by talking about my father.”

“You could never ruin this,” she tells him gently, and perhaps that’s too much, too revelatory, but it’s also painfully true. If anyone’s going to tear their tenuous connection to shreds, it’ll be her, either because the heist calls for it or because he discovers what she did and can’t forgive her for it. That’ll come later, though, tomorrow or a week from now or after the gala event they plan to make their move at. For now, she’s here with Jaime, and the sun is shining down on them, bathing them both in warm golden light.

He smiles, though it doesn’t quite meet his eyes. “My family says I have a tendency to ruin things.”

She rolls them both over abruptly, turning them until he’s pinned beneath her, a spark lighting in his eyes at the action. “Ignore them, Jaime. They’re not here. Don’t let them destroy this for you before it’s even begun.”

The information they’ve dug up during preparations and the secrets she already knows have predisposed her towards disliking the Lannisters, and the things Jaime’s said have only proven her instincts correct. But she doesn’t want them butting in on this now, not when there’s no way of knowing how long this’ll last, how long she’ll be able to keep hold of Jaime before he flies away. 

There’s more, too, quiet thoughts she keeps trying to stuff into overflowing boxes no longer capable of holding all the Things She Doesn’t Think About. Her hatred for the false smile that settles on his face whenever he talks about his family, how difficult it is to stop thinking that what she’s trying to do could help erase that expression forever, they’re both ideas she shoves to the side as soon as they emerge, determined not to read into them any more than she can help. The more she thinks about it, the easier it’ll be to forget how temporary this is, and the worse it’ll be when the illusion shatters around her.

For now, though, she has Jaime beaming up at her and the sun painting them both in gold light, and she leans down to press her lips against his, letting the rolling wave of his affection wash away her fears and her doubts and leave her content, at least for a little while.

**Author's Note:**

> i've learned my lesson from last time (ha!) and will not be promising anything about when the next part might appear. it definitely won't be in the next week or two, because i'm turning my focus to tutsl and also the smut swap is coming up! and you'll have enough things to read for a bit even though they'll all be fairly short! 
> 
> plus, you know, life happens. i do have a week of being slightly less busy mid-february, so who knows? 
> 
> certainly not me. i have no idea how time works.


End file.
